What other schools would you recommend that we look at for majoring in Aerospace Engineering other than Ga Tech. Ga Tech is my son’s 1st choice but I know that we need to have a backup plan. We live in TN but he does not want to go to Univ of TN
Below are the specifics:
Currently a high school sophomore.
ACT score 27 (taken freshman year retaking next month)
Current GPA 4.050 takes all AP and Honor classes
Member of Honors Society, Math Club, Marching Band and Boy Scouts (will be a Eagle Scout in about a year.)
He wants to:
Major in Aerospace Engineering (has since he as 6 years old and has gone to Space Camp at NASA every year)
Would like to march in the Marching Band and minor in Music
Might like to do ROTC
Will need scholarships or financial aid.
Any suggestions of what schools we should look at? Current backups are Purdue and University of MI
You could try looking up a list of all the schools in the U.S. that offer AeroE (there’s a list on Wikipedia) and searching through those. Has he taken the PSAT or SAT? (i.e., any chance for National Merit?) His GPA is quite high if that is unweighted. I’ve heard that University of Alabama, which I believe has aerospace, offers automatic merit scholarships for students with certain GPA and ACT/SAT requirements.
I’m a senior going into aerospace engineering at Wichita State University in KS. It’s easy to get into and has a strong program (I know, not two things that usually go together on CC), and I will be on a full ride National Merit Finalist scholarship. It would be a great safety if it could be affordable (they do offer some other fairly significant scholarships.)
That’s not a really high ACT for an engineering major but his ACT should increase significantly junior yr after calculus. Colleges report the 75/25 spread for ACT scores & engineering majors run higher than that, especially in math. So, assuming a spectacular ACT… Purdue, UICU, OSU, MD… But all have high admission requirements (and OSU, in my understanding, is becoming more selective because of their brilliant recruitment strategy). My son was like yours, interested in “flying vehicles” since before he could read. I did exactly what you are doing-made an initial list of Unis that had AE programs when he was a Soph. I figured he could change his mind but I wanted his school to have that program. Jr yr in hs he took a programming class and…that was that. Still, he applied to Unis w AE just in case. Isn’t Georgia Tech lopsided w re to gender? My son is pretty shy but he did say he wanted a balanced gender school. At the stage you’re at, the choices seemed endless but by the time ds had to decide, it was really clearcut for him. Very important differences between programs, and he knew what was right For Him. Best wishes!
Notre Dame has Aerospace Engineering, the oldest marching band in the country (380 members!), Army, Navy, and AirForce ROTC, and great financial aid if you have demonstrated need. It’s a tough school to get into though (22% admit rate), so test scores will need to go up and leadership and EC’s will be expected.
My son’s friend graduated from the Aerospace Engineering program and now works for Boeing.
Plenty of schools have undergraduate AE programs, but at several universities AE is a graduate degree, like at the U of Washington, which nevertheless sends many of its alumni to the Boeing Company.
Yes we know that need needs at minimum a 31 ACT score. 27 was his score as a freshman and first time taking test. Had not taken Algebra II yet. Thanks for all the suggestions. He is open to go anywhere location wise.
Public Us generally won’t provide any/much FA to Out of state students. Some good merit options include Alabama and Alabama Huntsville (opportunities for some internships with NASA there). GT will need a much higher score for any merit. Aerospace companies hire Mech Es for the same jobs as Aeros.
GT will not likely be a source for either for your son. It’s an OOS public and students are usually either full pay, or there on HOPE/Zell Miller (instate). Merit is unlikely because it’s highly competitive and a male student from neighboring Tenn will not add diversity to their school.
You’ll likely need to look at private schools that are known for very good aid (needing a much higher ACT)…or schools that are known to give large merit (needing a much higher ACT)
Are you low income or modest income?
How much can you pay each year?
Do not obsess over rankings, they don’t mean much. There are many schools that have very fine AeroE programs. Look for ABET accreditation.
Employers do NOT pay GT grads a higher salary. All new hires would have the same starting salary.
If your student is determined not to attend his state flagship university, then look for options at other public and private colleges that have been known to offer decent financial aid options and place their alumni in aerospace companies, NASA, etc.;
Saint Louis University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology (Aero concentration in ME)
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
U of South Carolina (Minor)
U of Virginia
U of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Case Western Reserve University
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Even graduates of relatively little known engineering schools such as the U of Portland have gotten jobs at NASA and the JPL. Of course, they were top students.
No he has gone to the one at Cape Canaveral in Florida. My brother-in-law is an Aerospace Engineer at NASA at the Cape. He is helping us with which schools would be good also. I just wanted to hear what other people had to say.
He will take the PSAT this year to try to qualify for National Merit.
Our need for scholarships and financial aid is not a deal breaker. I guess I should have said hopeful not needed. We do not want him to have a huge financial obligations after graduation. We are a middle class family with one professional salary. My husband (his father) is on disability.
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He will take the PSAT this year to try to qualify for National Merit.
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Then sign him up for the May and/or June SAT for “real practice”. There usually is an option when you sign up to pay about $15 more to get the score sheet answer and question book sent to you later so your child can review exactly what he got wrong.
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We do not want him to have a huge financial obligations after graduation.
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Totally agree!
There’s no need for those as an AeroE major…no need at all. Besides, can you imagine how annoyed a person would soon be paying back big loans for 10 years while colleagues from “very good, but lower ranked” schools are being paid the same salary…sans loans.
To me that reads that you may not qualify for much FA (the real reason to run the Net Price Calculators). In that case you need to look for merit aid options. There’s a pinned thread in the FA forum with many options. Any chance he could get tuition reciprocity through your college?
We went through this last year with my son who intends to study Aerospace Engineering. We live in Arizona. My son had a 2340 SAT, was a National Merit finalist, had a 3.83/4.0 unweighted GPA from a very competitive high school, and was a National AP Scholar. His extracurriculars were not outstanding. He was accepted by GA Tech, Purdue, Michigan, Arizona, Arizona State, Rose-Hulman, Texas, and Texas A&M. Concerning the OOS schoools, he was offered no merit money from GA Tech or Texas, $10,000 from Michigan and Purdue, and the A&M National Merit scholarship, which includes an OOS tuition waiver and $10,000 per year. We had a great visit to A&M, so we had an easy decision. My son loves it at A&M and is doing very well. Like Purdue and Michigan, students are admitted as general engineering majors and then apply after a semester or two for their major. He just submitted his application for admission to the Aerospace Engineering Department, which should be approved shortly for next year.
I would encourage you to also look at Arizona and Arizona State. ASU’s Barrett Honors College is one of the elite Honors programs in the U.S. http://barretthonors.asu.edu/ The Fulton Engineering College is very good. http://semte.engineering.asu.edu/aerospace-engineering/ My son liked Barrett/Fulton quite a bit and would probably have gone their if A&M hadn’t been the same net cost… For high achieving students like your son, you should expect significant merit aid from ASU. Here’s a scholarship estimator: https://scholarships.asu.edu/estimator
Arizona’s engineering school is smaller than ASU’s but still good. http://www.ame.arizona.edu/ My youngest son and I visited just this week and we were quite impressed. He liked the smaller program and Arizona’s campus is very nice. The UA Honors Program is also quite nice, but a notch down from ASU’s in my opinion. I don’t think there is an online scholarship calculator for Arizona, but I think you could expect about the same aid as from ASU.
I probably don’t have to add that Arizona weather from September to May is pretty incredible!
This is the list of schools i applied to for aerospace :
UMich
Gtech
UIUC
Purdue
UCSD
UCLA
Penn state
CU - Boulder
Illinois Institute of tech
27 ACT is a bit too low for UIUC, UMich, Gtech etc.
Assuming he improves his score, he’s got a good chance.
Penn state and purdue should be safe for him and they’ve got great programs ! You should look at UMich, UCLA and UIUC for sure and IIT as a back-up .
Good luck !
If the upcoming ACT scores are 31 or better and he applies to Illinois Tech before December 1, he could very well be nominated for a Camras scholarship and invited to the IIT Scholarship weekend in February. That being said, if being in a marching band and having a big athletic program is a must then IIT is not a good fit.
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